ALAN PARDEW admitted he began to fear the worst about landing the striker he needed at Newcastle United THREE days before the window slammed shut.

The Toon manager claimed that “three or four” players had been on his radar to fill the No 9 shirt, but ultimately time, financial constraints and the club blueprint prevented him from doing so – despite having seven months for United to land their targets.

Pardew told United’s board of his fury after they emerged empty-handed after the window.

But obviously the manager is in no position to publicly attack his own board, and Pardew kept a cool head during an eagerly-awaited first media conference since player trading ceased until January.

Therefore when asked on his frustrations, Pardew told the Chronicle: “I thought after the Fulham game when we didn’t secure the player we wanted it was going to be tough.

“We are in a small market for the player we wanted and he had to fit a certain age.

“And it had to be a player who could wear the No 9 jersey here.

“You are in a field where clubs don’t want to let their players go.

“They can see future value in them and maybe they will want to sell them later. We were in a very small market.”

The market Pardew refers to is one which restricts the manager to signing younger players, generally from the Continent, with United no longer willing to splash out on huge wages such as the days of Michael Owen, Mark Viduka and Geremi.

Nevertheless, Pardew said: “I know that Derek Llambias had gone down the road long and hard but ended up at dead ends.

“When it hadn’t been finalised on the Sunday night I feared we were in trouble.

“We fought on and I think Derek’s financial side of the story will come out.”

As a consequence, Pardew has been a target for abuse in the aftermath of the window, despite leading the team off to a good start and early top-six placing.

Pressed on how he felt at being left to face the fans time after time, the former West Ham boss said: “From my point of view it is frustrating because I am the one at the coalface.

“The fans asked me every time I left the training ground ‘Have we signed a striker’ or ‘When will we sign a striker?’.

“I made it very, very clear we were trying.

“But unfortunately the financial side of it just didn’t come through.”